Charles sat relaxed on the second-floor balcony of the Pittsburgh trading center, overlooking the bustling trading hall.
The hall was filled with people, mainly buying bread. Previously, the trading center primarily dealt in raw materials like wheat, tobacco, and cotton, as well as selling ingredients like flour. With the arrival of numerous canal workers, the bakery downstairs also began operating, and its business was equally good. It didn't sell many items, just bread, bean soup, boiled corn, and smoked meat.
However, without exception, these foods were all very expensive, with many people spending half of their income on them. In just over a month, the bakery's net profit was around one hundred pounds, and this was after marking up the prices of flour and other ingredients.
If calculated at cost, the profit would be incredible. When Greenspan reported the accounts to Charles, he stated that the total income of the entire trading center was close to five hundred pounds, significantly higher than the ironworks' earnings.
Charles had officially appointed Charlotte as the head of this trading center last night. He also suggested selling more cooked foods like French fries, sandwiches, and hamburgers, with the most typical, of course, being hot dogs with sausages. This type of food also suited the tastes of Americans and was enthusiastically received upon its launch.
However, what was originally commoner's food became quite expensive because sausages and other meats mostly had to be transported from Scarlet Manor. So, when it went on the market today, only a few wealthy families bought large quantities, while most others only bought a small amount to taste.
It's good to be a local landlord!
Smelling the rich aroma of freshly baked bread, Charles leisurely sipped his tea.
This tea was acquired during a visit to Boston to boost morale. It was, in fact, original tea from India. Good tea leaves require very specific growing conditions, so it was not surprising that the British, who had finally obtained tea seeds, tried to grow tea in various Colonies. Darjeeling in India was currently experimenting with tea seeds smuggled from China, and Charles finding tea seeds in Boston was not strange at all.
Charles hadn't been particularly fond of tea before, but here, tea was the only thing that made him feel a sense of belonging. Even black tea, which he disliked intensely before, he now drank with relish. Today, because he was discussing investment cooperation with those people from Philadelphia, he was short on time. He had originally planned to go inspect Scarlet Manor.
Scarlet Manor was currently in its prime, with lush greenery. The busy farming season had just ended, and crops were growing. Riding a fine horse, accompanied by several servants, and leisurely inspecting his vast lands—this was something Charles had always wanted to do, but it seemed it would have to wait until tomorrow.
Slowly finishing a cup of black tea with a little sugar, Charlotte, who was behind him, immediately picked up the cotton-wrapped teapot and poured him another half-full cup.
"Thank you, Charlotte!" Charles, instead, put down his teacup, looking with satisfaction at the increasingly delicate Charlotte.
Seeing the youthful yet already very charming Charlotte, he couldn't help but have some thoughts.
"Bang… bang bang"
Just as Charles was about to make a move on the 'lamb,' a sudden burst of gunfire erupted from not far away.
"Where did that gunshot come from?" Charles turned his head, looking around.
"It sounds like it came from outside the town," Charlotte, behind him, had already made a judgment.
Charles hadn't been back in the town for long, so his judgment of where the gunshots came from was indeed not as good as Charlotte's, who was a true local. However, after they both pinpointed the exact location of the gunshots, they found that there were only three shots, and then silence.
Although he inwardly guessed that nothing serious had happened, Charles, as one of Pittsburgh's most important leaders, still had to go and check the situation. He had no choice but to leave Charlotte, who was not at all startled, and, taking a few militiamen, went to the vicinity of where the shots were fired.
The location didn't actually need to be specifically sought out; the town was only so big. Not long after Charles left the trading hall in the town center, he saw the crowd that had already gathered there.
Seeing Charles approach, Antoine from the crowd was the first to greet him.
"Your Excellency, our men discovered several armed natives who were just now spying on our town. Fortunately, after the militiamen spotted them, they immediately fired warning shots and drove them away," Antoine reported to Charles in a low voice.
Just then, Patrick also arrived, and Antoine immediately relayed the situation to him in a low voice.
"natives!" Charles and Patrick both had a bad premonition.
These natives either didn't appear near the Colonies, or if they did, what they brought was either friendship or war. Since this was a stronghold for pioneers in the west, and they had come to spy, the possibility of war was enough to overshadow the possibility of friendship.
If Charles had more money and stronger forces, he might consider fighting someone for fun. Currently, he was at a stage where he had some strength to bully the weak, but facing the possibility of natives attacking, he felt a bit apprehensive. Especially since Pittsburgh was still under development, he didn't want to start a war with anyone on this construction site.
He didn't blame his side for firing warning shots; after all, natives couldn't be dealt with by simply showing weakness. If they didn't show friendly intentions within a short time, war might become unavoidable.
Antoine evidently understood Charles' concerns and added a sentence to confirm Charles' suspicions.
"Our militiamen said that those natives just now looked like warriors, and they clearly had hostile intentions, deliberately observing our defenses. When they saw the shots fired, they retreated calmly, absolutely a purposeful reconnaissance."
"Should we prepare weapons? Distribute weapons to adult males as much as possible?" Patrick was the first to express his concern.
"It's good to prepare some weapons, but I think it's best to send some scouts first to investigate the situation. What do you think, Antoine?" Charles asked the militia commander after stating his opinion.
"At least for today, we probably don't need to prepare weapons," Antoine shook his head. "We always have reconnaissance cavalry patrolling the outskirts of the town. If a large force of natives appeared, they would definitely be discovered. Those few natives just now were probably a small group of scouts who evaded our reconnaissance.
If they had a large force, based on my experience, they should still be at least a day's journey from here. Even if they really intend to attack the town, they wouldn't attack immediately before thoroughly scouting. So, the only thing we can do now is to send a few riders to find the location of their main force."
Among them, he was the only one who truly knew how to fight, and how to fight against natives. Although Charles and Patrick were quite worried about not arming the civilians yet, both wisely chose not to interfere.
"Then I'll go tell my arsenal to prepare. Didn't you say double-barreled rifles were good? I'll have them prepare as many as possible, and maybe even a few cannons can be made. Hahaha! We'll see what fate awaits these natives then." Charles used laughter to relieve his tension.
After all, they still didn't know the true strength of the natives, so being nervous was useless.
"That's good. Then I'll go call some vagrants and have them reinforce the wooden fence. As it is now, it can only block animals. Using it as a defensive wall would simply be murder for our militiamen." Patrick quickly found something he could do.
Although Charles looked down on this greedy mayor, seeing his performance at this moment, he secretly nodded. He was indeed a man capable of stabilizing the town single-handedly, and at such a critical juncture, his talent was most evident.
"If the mayor still has time, it would be best to re-inventory the weapons of those vagrants. Most people here already have their own weapons. Knowing their situation will help me arrange the defenses for tomorrow and the day after."
"En! Good." Patrick immediately agreed.
The two then left, leaving the specific military command entirely to Antoine.
Pittsburgh's war preparedness supplies were also very uneven. Clothes, shoes, and hats were relatively scarce, but firearms, ammunition, and even military canteens were all very abundant. Especially after Charles' ironworks and arsenal started production, there were several types of muskets and ammunition alone. Hans' workshop had always supplied musket parts to Philadelphia, and now with the division of labor between the two sides, the production speed increased several times over.
At this time, gun and bullet manufacturing was relatively simple. From afternoon to evening, nearly a hundred double-barreled shotgun barrels were temporarily cast. When the number reached one hundred, Charles immediately had them stop and concentrate all efforts on processing steel parts. Even so, with the blacksmiths of both workshops working simultaneously, they only processed enough parts for twenty double-barreled muskets.
At this point, wooden stock grips were already being used, but these gun bodies, once manufactured, could not be used immediately due to a lack of stocks. Fortunately, Patrick selected several carpenters from the immigrants, chose some walnut and hornbeam wood, and worked through the night to make dozens of wooden grips as temporary stocks, finally assembling these muskets.
At the current speed of the smelting workshop, it would take less than two days to produce one hundred double-barreled rifles to arm the elite squad. By then, with a continuous production line of muskets and cannons, it would be enough to arm all over a thousand people in the entire town. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh did not have enough time.